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Wednesday, February 27, 2013

A List of Things I Used to Not Like But Now I Think are Okay

If the title of this post doesn’t make sense to you, go listen to this song, then come back.
I won’t go anywhere.

So if you’ve been following this blog since its inception
(in the actual dictionary-definition sense of the word, rather than the
something-inside-something-else or blanket-term-for-anything-really-confusing
sense that the Internet has slapped onto it since the movie), you may have
noticed that a lot of the cynicism has kind of died away.

What can I say?
I was an angry teenager.

I don’t mean to invalidate any of the opinions or views that
I expressed in some of my earlier posts.
I’m also not saying I’ve changed my mind about all of those things. I still think a lot of people are
morons, but since I don’t work directly with the public anymore, I don’t have
to deal with them. Actually, that
last bit might explain a lot about why I’ve mellowed out.I also started college, which has humbled me a few
notches. I haven’t undergone this
grand reevaluation of life, the universe, and everything that a lot of
adolescents seem to when they sort of set out on their own. (I haven’t set out on my own yet, but
that’s beside the point.) But I
got a little forced perspective.
My university’s student body is ten times the population of the town
where I went to high school.Big fish, small pond.
You get the idea.

But I didn’t ask you here today to tell you about my growing
experience as a person. In fact, I didn’t
ask you here at all, and yet here you are. I appreciate that.
I really do.

The problem I now face is this: I have a lot less to write about. It’s tough to sit down and enumerate all the ways in which
life has been fair to me lately.
And it’s boring to read.
But I’m betting I’m not the only one who’s dealt with a little fresh
perspective, and so what I am going
to do is enumerate some of the things that used to annoy me that don’t
anymore.

Pop music - In high school, I was a band geek, and hung out with the band geeks. Most of us moonlighted as music connoisseurs, or thought we did. (I just spelled the word "connoisseur" right on the first try, and would like you all to know that, because I couldn't believe it.) We scoffed at people who listened to Katy Perry and Lady Gaga. If the only White Stripes song you knew was "Seven Nation Army" that didn't count as "liking the White Stripes." I've since come to appreciate that sometimes the goal of music is not to be intellectually stimulating or to provide social commentary. Sometimes the only claim a tune makes is to be fun to listen to, and that's okay. And it's okay if you listen to it over and over and over.

Action movies - Explosions are cool. Big explosions are very cool. Explosions don't win Oscars, but if you only go watch movies that are going to make you cry, you're going to have a sad life.

Dogs - This explanation is not as deep. I have long considered myself a cat person. I love my cat. But I no longer think you have to choose a side. I think it's okay to like cats and dogs.

Justin Bieber - I know, I said pop music already. But this is more along the lines of the Bieb being a cultural icon. His music is not art. Maybe he doesn't "deserve" to be famous, but he's a talented kid who got a lucky break and I think we should be happy for him, instead of casting him into the same pop-cultural blunder category as, say, the Twilight franchise, which is genuinely horrible.

Onions - Maybe it's an acquired taste. I used to hate onions. I don't anymore. You won't catch me eating them raw, but throw a few on my smoked salmon bagel and we're good.

High school - Whoever said "You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone" was wise indeed (that was Shakira, right?*). I couldn't wait to get out of that place the entire time I was there. I felt trapped. When I graduated, the feeling of freedom lasted until I started college, where it quickly morphed into abandonment and then apathy. I had almost enough rope to hang myself. Had enough to fail a couple classes, anyway.

Twitter - When I first started hearing about Twitter, I never understood why people would use it, or why anyone would ever follow anyone else. Like, who cares? Now I don't know what I would do without Tom Hiddleston's daily nuggets of insight.

Tom Hiddleston - No, who am I kidding? I had a crush on Loki the minute he appeared in Thor.

Always clever, Raz. "That's not why I called you here." *smile* Yes, teenage angst should be bottled and oppened after your children become teenagers. That way, it will have company. I would like to see the other side... things you liked then that you now think are not okay. BTW, the classic line "you don't know what you got til it's gone" is from Joni Mitchell, angel lyricist of my generation. The album (do we still call them that?) was "Ladies of the Canyon"

@Tom... Thanks for the source of that line! Yes, we still call them albums, but it's in more of a symbolic sense now :) While I was writing this list I thought of several things that I used to like but don't anymore... but that's a different post for a different time.